Tuesday, April 12, 2011

type4:Some thoughts

Using tool for a material came pretty spontaneously. While being at the craft store picking some materials that I personally thought would be fun, and some what experimental I found that tool was super cheap, and they had some great colors to choose from. So I picked four different colors out, that I thought would layer nicely on top of one another. Due to that being my first instinct to play with. So, when taking photos of this experiement I was surprised by what I saw in camera. The idea of movement it has, while being still is really interesting. I've shown it to a few people, and they always think I had moved the material to get that effect. Although this process while being static and looking like it's moving is interesting, it's also a good question to ask how far I can take legibility with this. Can I spell a word by single letters being layered upon one another? Does the consistency of the tool matter? Like, would a larger weave have the same effect?

Take was an experiment by thinking about how small I could possibly get with some felted type, while still being somewhat legible. the crowdedness of the letterforms were actually kind of hard to make, because keeping that small of wool together and still being able to read was difficult in its own. Leaving it over night for the cats to pay with wasn't helping either, but once I arrived at school it was even more illegible, but still people could read it. With this type of material, I know I think it'd be interesting to see a large amount of text all next each other. Somewhat webbed together. Comparing this to the letter forms I made to be handled with less care, I can definitely see a difference in delicacy. When looking at this word, and then one of my needle felted A's I made the attitude towards it becomes more tightened, and concerned with how it's going to be handled. Such as, when I hand this off to a friend, they are much more aware of how they touch it, versus my knitted A.

The F Study was the start of using profanity in what I was making. I wanted to see the relationship between form and content. Although, this isn't an "A" I can see how this material can manipulate it's meaning by the look and feel of the object. The characteristic feeling this f has is fun and playful, almost dinosaur like.

Playing around with needle felting some more and seeing the relationships between having a counter in the A and not. Also playing with the back and front side of the object. Seeing the relationship in form between the back and front is interesting, because of the process of needle felting it started showing through on each side, so then it interrupted each form.

This was more to see how transparency and filling the letter completely would look. Due to the tool being more sturdy and more net like I felt it lended itself to a more case like feel.

The knitted A was fun to do to because I got to make my own grid for how the A would look. The process took me A WHILE to finally get it right, and just for credit, this was my first letterform knitted...not sure what the correct term is for that though. The serif A is not exactly lending itself to looking like a serif, but the idea is there. Formally compared to the rest of my A's it's definitely seen that it more organized and definitely based off of a grid, so less free flowing, and more tight.

My tiny fleece A was to see the relationship between the felted F and this, by size and stitching method.

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Here are some studies I've been doing in type four class. Looking at the formal relationships and studying the difference in material and how each were made, it is interesting to see the difference in what the letters are expressing.

When I started experimenting the idea of a control group was vacant in my mind, so I was thinking I would just go and make a ton of different things....then I was brought down to earth. (not saying anything bad about this idea though). I needed something to study, versus just studying the materials I use. So, I then explored the idea of using profanity as my control group. Due to my formal decisions I thought would be silly/interesting to see the juxtaposition of something cute/soft paired with a profane word.

After show and tell on Monday, I realized that some processes/materials were more liked than others, and definitely the tool A was more favored among the bunch. Moving on with this though, I want to explore words within this. Now that I've looked at difference materials, and how they act and compare to others I'd like to bring in content. Now, just what is that content.